Today the news broke that Facebook will continue the ban on Donald Trump on the grounds that he incited an insurrection. Why is it that Facebook and Twitter are the ONLY ones holding him accountable for this? There has been precious little talk about the events of January 6. It is almost as if we are to pretend it never happened. And yet, it did happen. The President of the United States encouraged his people to march against Congress and stop the counting of the Electoral Votes. He told them to “fight like Hell.” The people responded by doing exactly that. They marched to the Capital, chanting about Civil War, breaking through barriers, busting through windows, and trampling the capital police. They forced Congress to evacuate and flee for their safety, as the mob overtook the building. They were not going to stop until they had overturned the government and installed Trump as the President again.
The thing is, we watched this happen in real time. We heard Trump’s speech and we watched in horror as the crowd descended on the Capital. And we wondered how this could happen in America. And yet, very little has been done about this grievous attack on our democracy. The Republicans have called for us to just “move on”. They act as is they did not just incite a deadly insurrection! A couple hundred of the most radical members of the mob have been arrested. And yet, the very ones who should be held accountable are still blissfully free from any serious consequences.
If the worse thing that happens to Trump and his Republican cronies is that they can’t post on social media… we have failed. Trump is already talking about running for office in 2024. How can we allow that? How can we allow him and all the Republican congressmen and women who fueled this insurrection with deception to continue to hold their positions? There must be consequences. If there are no consequences, this will happen again. And the next time, we may not be so fortunate. We CAN NOT stick our heads in the sand and pretend this never happened. We must continue to DEMAND accountability. There must be a full investigation, not just into the most radical members of the mob, but into the high profile instigators who called for the insurrection. And there must be serious consequences. Bans on social media are not nearly enough!